#7 - Time with Mak

This shall be my LAST post of blogging with no pictures. Frankly, I really have enjoyed creative blogging. But heck, I am so NOT going to do this anymore...geddit Moby???

Mak has been here for almost 3 weeks. Mak is nothing but a blessing to us for being here.

Mak and I had a weird (not a bad one) relationship when I was young. Mak was the quiet, demure and loyal homemaker who filled her time being a seamstress, a caterer and a cookery teacher. Everyday when I came back from school, I would see mak busy sewing someone's baju or cooking in the kitchen. She was so quiet that we hardly spoke when we were home except for the occasional 'Jangan degil nanti mak sebat baru tau!'.

As I get older, my relationship with mak got closer. We had more things in common to talk about. I subconsciously had picked up the interests and skills of cooking and baking from helping her with catering and her cookery classes and we bonded by me wanting to experiment cooking an impossible dish or just by helping her out in the kitchen. We even would divide our tasks or cooking for Hari Raya...she would cook 3 dishes and me 2.

As I get older, mak and I were able to have heart to heart talks. When she had arguments with bapak, I would be her lending ear. Most times, I tried to be the peacemaker. I don't keep my opinions about whos wrong or right cos I always ended up talking to either one who could have said something that he/she had said. Maybe that made us bond even stronger.

Now that mak is here, we had long long talks about our family. How 'last summer's' incident could have been avoided. Mak updated how my son was doing, how mak is parenting my son who obviously still pines for his ibu but too scared to admit. Mak and I talked, laughed, cried, talked again, laughed again.

So it is true that when you are in the deepest pit of your emotions, you do need your mom. Like me needing my mak, and maybe my son needing me (though he never admits it). I am glad that mak is here to listen. She is so levelheaded and her ulterior motive of being here is to be with me, Kakak Mas, the husband and especially, Baby Suraya.

We all love mak being here...our angel!

#6 : Another Tag

Got tagged by dearest Mr Hangloose CB

6 weirds things about me.

I am psychic - I dream when any of my close family members or friend are sick or in trouble, especially my mom. She and I have this telepathic relationship. When she was in Mekah, I dreamed that she was in bed, under the covers shivering. I called her cell phone and asked her if she was sick, she said yes. Then I asked if she was wearing white, and was shivering under the covers, she said yes. Eerie yes? To me, this is a gift from Allah. I get dreams when something not too good is going to happen. My son whos thousands of miles away, I get senses of what hes up to. If I dream of him, it means that he is up to something not good.

If I am psychic, I can also gauge others' personality - Which means, when I meet someone, I can gauge if I could trust this person to be a good trusting friend or not. The husband first thought that I was a judgemental person. No I am not, I love making friends, but I can also see if this person is weird, untrustworthy, full of sh*t or sincere. Most times, I am right but I still make mistakes... some people can be full of good and bad surprises.

The husband and I are twins - To me this is kinda weird and the husband and I will never get over it. We think of the same things at the same time almost everyday and we say things at the same time too. Sometimes, I would yell at the kids in malay and 2 seconds later, the husband yells at them in english and the kids would go,'Paps, ibu just said that in malay already, you don't have to repeat'. Maybe thats why our relationship is very very close...the BEST I ever had!

I am Lefthanded - Is being lefthanded weird? Some say that its a specialty, some say that we do things with tangan cebok. Who cares, some americans here also cebok with their right hand...yucks!

Chocolates are for sniffing - Yes you all know that I LOVE chocolates. But when I am on a diet, I would still buy them chocolates, put them in my drawer and SNIFF! Ahhhh, it feels good just smelling them!

Love them thongs - Yes, I wear G-strings, thongs, butt floss, whatever you call it. I even wear them when I was pregnant. So comfortable, so non invasive (to me) cos there's no panty lines.

I kill my own cats' fleas - Gross eh? Believe me, I can catch fleas in the dark and kill them too. But I stopped that habit once we have the baby, we use Advantage to mass kill the fleas.

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Who wants to be tagged, will get tagged. Whoever thinks that they have enough weird characters to blog about, please go right ahead and then let me know so that I can read your weirdness!

Maybe next time they should have a tag of 6 habits that you have...I am sure everyone would jump on it!

#5 : Touchy subject with Happy Ending

The husband told me yesterday that my blog does not sound as fun and emotional as before. I sounded more 'general' when I post and he does not get the 'feeling' of my expressions anymore. I did not realize the impact of this particular reader when he reads my blog until he told me.

It is true that I somewhat had curbed a good amount of my expressions when blogging since I came back from Singapore last year. Too much things happened, too much emotions were expressed and too much trust were broken. With the healing process which took months for me to even reach the 'sanity' level and still am trying to heal, my blog has turned to be just a notebook and not a monologue of my feelings anymore.

I have lost my touch. Lost the feeling of expressing in my blog. I looked back in my previous post. My first post said 'Blog virgin', then other silly short posts which sounded fun and happy. Then came the Summer blogs...of my kids. How happy I was expressing how well they were doing, how much they had achieve since they moved here. But one incident just switched the tempo of my writing. Dare I say that I am still not over the incident and never will.

To my readers, sorry if I sounded distant in my previous blogs. I am sure this page will be different once I return to work.

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ON A LIGHTER NOTE (must have happy ending right?)

Suraya is sleeping throughout the night since 2 weeks ago! Wooohoo? Its more like THANK GOD!!! We did not know how it happened and no, I had not been surpressing her milk intake during the night okay! She has a fixed schedule now, cuddles at 7pm, sleeps at 8pm and good morning time at 5 or 6am. But there's a catch. This baby does not sleep during the day. If she does, 30 minutes maximum naptime is all that she would take. I know, very tiring during the day but at least we get full night's sleep.

I can't wait to get back to work. I miss my life outside home. I miss the work stress...my brains need some exercise! With mak being here, sometimes I ended up speaking malay even to my husband. Sorry, it takes a while to do the auto 'change channel' lingo mode at times.

But then...I will miss my baby, she will miss me terribly too. I know that she will not be any babysitter's dreambaby during the first couple of days...she will adapt.

As for Kakak Mas, she complains that I have not been blogging about her much lately. Girls!!! They whine when you blog about them, they whine when you don't blog about them!

Mas has colored her hair with red streaks...yes,RED. Got the hair done at my hairdresser's salon after she made me promise to not even dare attempt to streak her hair (what? I got no talent meh?). When she was at the salon, Le, the hairdresser asked her what color she would like, she said 'Anything loud, as PUNK as possible okay'. So there...red, thats the only color that would last long compared to blue, purple or orange. Mas is still not done being punk. She has been picking up guitar notes from her guitar teacher who happens to be a little punky like her and had been strumming her guitar with punk songs. Whatever makes her happy.

As for the husband, he is still busy being that exemplary worker, and the perfect husband/stepdad/dad. His mother says that he's the mother hen in the house. He surely is! We do still have our occasional arguments but we both get too busy with the baby, sometimes we forget to pick fights on each other.

Mak, she is adapting very well being here. She has invaded the kitchen since she came here. So we had mee rebus, laksa, nasi tomato, mee goreng, epok2, kueh lompat tikar (yes, it exists!) and many more since she came here. She has bonded with Suraya so well that I would have no second thoughts of leaving Suraya with her when I go to work. But one thing about mak...she's always sejuuuuuuuuuk (cold)! She's even too afraid to go for a stroll in the neighborhood as its too cold, according to her. But it would not make her think twice if I bribe her with the trip to the mall and Starbucks!

#4: Snowy trip to Reno

So the grandmommies met for the first timeat Reno. One asian, one jewish...this picture says it all. It was weird to see 2 besan (in laws) meeting for the first time with totally different backgrounds. But in the end, they both have one great interest in their lives...their new granddaughter, Suraya.

The drive to Reno was a smooth one although the weather had been threatening to be severe by the end of the day. Seemed like we were not perturbed by it. It was beautiful when we reached mom in law's place...we could see the thick back clouds hovering over the sierras.

When we left at 5:30pm, snow chain law was already enforced at Donner Summit. That was when the REAL DEAL started. We had to pay the chain installers to install the whEel chain for us as the husband's hands were frozen from the snow. We had to drive at 22 mph for 50 miles and it took us about 3 hours to complete just 50 miles. The total driving time from Reno to SF was a whopping 7 hours and got home at 12:15am. For the hundredth time, I can say that travelling with a young baby is 5x more tiring than normal...sigh!

Thank God its Sunday today. The husband and Kakak Mas get to rest the entire day before returning to work and school the next day. For me, I have about one more week (waaaaah!) being home with the baby before I start working again.

#3 : American Idiot...eh no Idol

What is up with this American Idol Fever??? The only part that I love about American Idol is the preliminary audition round where you can see the good, the bad, the ugly and the wannabes. To tell you the truth, I never liked American Idol since it started few years back. The kids were also not keen on watching them UNTIL this year when mak is here to Idolize the Americans!!!

Its like the invasion of mak at home. At first she was the only one so hooked on American Idol, Mas and I have no choice but to sit and watched with her just to be social...little did we expect for that stupid show to get us hooked like her!

But geez, 8pm is 'husband and wife' time for the husband and me as he sleeps at 9pm every night. So no chance nak tengok...but I do get sneak peeks or updates from the 'people outside' in the living room. That asian guy from San Jose...aiyoh, luckily he's not labelled as a representative from the Bay Area...sungguh tak sedap suara dia, he might be able to sing better with shoes on hahaha! I think I could sing Careless Whisper 10x better than him. Till this minute, I am still telling myself 'Geez, what the heck am I doing?'.

We're off to Reno tomorrow, if the snow chain law is not enforced for all cars. Time to visit the mother in law. This visit will be different though. The 2 grannies shall meet! This will also be mak's first time experiencing the fresh powdery snow.

#2 of Takdak Gambar...

Note: Since I can't put a picture, I have increased the font for easy reading, hehehe...

Suraya has outgrown her Size 1 size of Huggies Diapers and has transitioned to Size 2. Same goes with her Onesies, can't button the crotch and her ibu was scrambling in the closet taking out her '3-6 month' size of her clothes. Some specifically indicated '3 months' and Suraya has about 4-5 more wears on them before they look like 'sarong nangka'.

Besides outgrowing her clothes, Suraya is beginning to coordinate her moto skills, learning to reach out and grab. Her cooing and gurgling has also improved. I don't know if it was just the husband and me or that we're crazy, that Suraya gurgles and coos, mimicking our sounds. It surely is amazing to us!

The husband has given me a job that I have never before done in my life...to go to a Lube Shop and get an oil change for our Mazda5. What makes him think that I am so ready to go when he asks me to? I am even too lazy to fill up gas, inikan lagi change oil? Oh well, since I am the one not working, guess I'm it.

In the meantime, I have 2 freakin' strips of metal vials at the back of my 2 shoulder blades for allergy testing. They will only be taken out tomorrow. Imagine me living with these 2 strips on my back, can't sleep in comfort, can't even take a shower, just sponge bath...which means, I can't wash my hair today!

Picture-less entry #1

Yes, I have been challenged by Moby/Ajab's Daddy to this...'Creative writing without Pictures'. So in the next 14 days, a minimum of 7 posts, this blog will have no pictures posted, but there will be picture links okay? Sorry folks, I am sure you will enjoy reading my blog just like looking at pics in the previous posts.

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I will be back to work in less than 2 weeks...yes less than 2 weeks! Excited? Happy? Yes and no. Yes, cos I miss my co workers, the fast pace of working life, the work stress and the 'pakai baju kerja' fashion (got new pair of boots yeeehaaa!). NO...I will terribly miss my baby Suraya, she has not quite successfully been bottle fed. She does it only when she feels like it but she doesn't cry anymore when we put the bottle in her mouth. She just needs to depend on the bottle now to feed (which most of the time doesn't happen as she throws a fit wanting her ibu's booby). Mak says that she will take on the bottle insyaAllah, I trust my mak, I trust my mak.

Going back to work after being absent from it for 4 months needs alot of preparations you know. I have to go to the hair salon to retouch my roots, arch my brows and maybe buy a couple of new tops (depending on my budget) to physically prepare for my return, without charging any on credit cards. The husband has imposed a 'no credit card usage anymore!' campaign to restructure our spending habits.

I have totally stopped looking into my work email just cos I want to mentally be surprised of the happenings in the office. My office is going through massive restructuring, so I know that I will hear at least a couple of juicy ones from my boss.

We are also looking for a babysitter for when mak returns home in May. We put up on Craigslist...most of them wanted $15/hr. Can't afford it! But got some 'lobang' from girlfriends recommending fantastic sitters for $600/mth. Ahemm, sounds alot? Not here in Northern California. So we will be interviewing these $600/mth sitters pretty soon and stick with the ones we feel safe with. By then, Suraya will be 5 months old and I am sure she will not have bottle feeding issue as she would be eating solids and drink from sippy cups if she refuses the bottle.

I have more to write but will save it for the next post...urrgggh!!! Thanks Moby hehehe.

We do not have the Chinese New Year Holiday here but coincindentally, its a long weekend for most of us here as its the President's Day Weekend. For the kids, its the President's Week as they will be off all week this week.

The weather was so beautiful last weekend. So we went to the Golden Gate Park and down Highway 1 to Santa Cruz the next day to enjoy the sun.

Like people always say, mom knows best about their kids. No matter how far your kid may be, mom will always know how the kid is feeling and what he might be up to. No matter how much the kid might have hurt the mom, the mom will always think of her kid. But I do believe in fate, I do believe in Allah who knows that the truth will prevail one day.

On a lighter note, here's Suraya taken a few days ago.

In the meantime, Kakak Mas is busy practicing her guitar. She is very excited to have learned more after every lesson. We are so very proud of her.

What is Valentine's Day? To the husband and me, everyday is Valentine's Day. Almost 6 years that we have been married...each time this day comes, we tend to not even plan it as a special day but always end up going out to dinner, just to have some alone time together without the kids. This year, mak is around, so this means that we could go out to dinner, just the 2 of us. Hopefully Suraya will take on the bottle soon when ibu's not around.

Dear husband,

Its this time of the year again,
Dare I admit that this is just an ordinary day,
Not our anniversary neither is our birthdays,
Each time when we do not want to celebrate,
We end up going out to dinner,
But to me, everyday is a special day for you and me,
And I hope that you feel the same

Oh well, for Valentine's Day sake, I should say that...

I Love You and always will!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Taken last weekend

Suraya had her 2 month check up yesterday. She has gained 3.5 more lbs making her weighing in at 12.5 lbs. Its amazing how breastfeeding could make her grow like that too. Dr says that babies normally grow at a rate of 1-2lbs per month...but this little munchkin has hit the growth highway! But the Dr says that Suraya is very healthy and her weight growth is amazing. Must be the M&Ms that I had been indulging past 2 weeks as....I did not lose anymore weight since last month due to this junk indulgence. So no more candy for me. This mama needs to lose more weight before she goes to work in 4 weeks, eeek!

Suraya also had 4 shots on her thighs yesterday, making her the fussiest baby on earth last night with a slight fever. But thats okay, I am sure she will pull through as soon as we take her out for a drive this weekend.

I am trying to bottle feed this little one with my breast milk. Mak says that this girl is too sedap with her ibu that she has no patience for the bottle. But thats okay, this mama will make sure that Suraya likes the bottle soon!

Now we're thinking of enrolling her for Baby Gymboree...I am sure Kakak Alya will have good advise for us :)

Mak is here! Mak is here!

As we all know, when we have a relative or a friend come to visit us from home, its like they came with a container load of food. This time, mak brought us her homemade pineapple tarts, choc chip cookies, kueh lopes, tapai ubi, kueh baulu (or bahulu like what Kak Teh says) and many other gifts for us.

It was so nice to see mak at the airport. Of course, she cried when she first met her newest grandchild. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, I had to divert her emotional feelings to asking how her flight was. Suraya took a liking to mak right away. She must have felt that mak and her ibu is somewhat the same. Same voice...same feel but one wears glasses the other one doesn't. Mak will be of such great help when it comes to Suraya.

In the meantime....

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY KAKAK MAS!!!

13 years ago, this day was a miracle day for you and me,
You woke me up at 6am in the morning wanting to come into this world,
It was the eve of Chinese New Year and there were no available taxis to ferry me to the hospital until an hour later,
It was a painful but fast delivery...3 hours into labor and you were born at 7.7lbs,
But that was 13 years ago...now you are such a beautiful and loyal daughter,
Smart and musical too...
I love spending every day with you and forever...

We all love you Kakak Mas,

Love,
Ibu, Paps and Suraya

I have learned something...if the husband says that he will help with cleaning the house or take something to the garage...DO NOT ever hold my breath for it! Not that the husband has not been helping with housework. He just does not like to clean. He cooks and shops for groceries better than me but when it comes to cleaning, he thinks that I am very particular. But but but, he is a great husband and I love you :)

Mak will be in the land of the US of A approximately 28 hours from now. I am pretty excited about mak's arrival. I have been buying her warm robe, thick socks, thick comforter and new pillows so that she will stay comfortable in this cold weather. With mak around, she will be of so much help around the house especially with Suraya. Knowing that Suraya will be in mak's arms and half the time when she's here, I have been holding Suraya all day today. Can never ever get enough of this little girl :)

Today will also mark my return to work in exactly a month's time. Sigh..I am having mixed feelings. Don't want to leave my baby but I do miss the fast pace of working life. I know that it will not be as bad as I think. I am sure the transition between the baby and me will be minimal. I am still trying to plan on how I can schedule my pumping of breastmilk session when I am working. I am determined to make this work.

Diet? Nope, I have not been cutting down on anything. In fact, I still do not understand how I can feel hungry all the time...maybe its due to breastfeeding. I am literally eating for 2! But I feel that I have lost another 5 lbs but I can't confirm until I go to the baby Dr's office this Friday and weigh myself. As for Suraya, I know that she has gained at least 2 lbs.

But whats diet when mak's here? She has planned to cook mee rebus as soon as she arrives...bring it on mak!

Nada...

Its been days since I last blogged. I so much would like to blog again but don't know what to write about. Asked Makcik Hope what to blog about...she says 'Blog about cooking lah'...but you see, I have not cooked in ages! Well...since the baby was born, cooking has been the husband's task every night.

I was going to blog about how excited I am that Mak is coming to town next week. I was also going to blog about my weightloss, which did not shed much from the scale either as I have been eating alot due to breastfeeding. Rasa macam longgar sikit baju tapi not satisfactoryh yet. Last 10lbs always the hardest. Was going to blog about the baby...but there should be something else to talk about besides the baby right?

So there, an entry was born without me writing about anything. Just like Seinfeld, "A Story About Nothing".

We had my cousin, Abang Wan come visit us in the midst of his business trip here.

Thank you Abang Wan for coming to see us. Every visit with a family is always a happy one. Till we see you again next year (as you have promised!).

In the meantime, Ely is addicted to M&Ms. From the plain M&Ms to the MEGA sized ones. Care for some M&Ms for breakfast anyone?

Baby talk...

Who says babies can't speak? This was taken when Suraya was 5.5 weeks.

Aftermath...

"More than Suraya handling herself well, my beloved wife handled Suraya well. In fact, Ely had to spend the majority of the time with her out of necessity. I am forever grateful to my wife for all she did on this trip, as are my grandparents and other relatives. I've said from the beginning that this trip is no vacation, but it's just something we must do, as my grandmother may only have one chance of ever meeting her only great grandchild. We couldn't have asked for a better family visit, and I hope Grandma can hang in there a little while longer so she can watch little Suraya grow. And I hope that Ely and I can see 65 years of marriage just like my grandparents...

Posted by sid presley 1/22/2007 1:46 PM"


With that comment, it means that I do not have to explain why we went to Florida.

Its been 48 hours since we came back from the trip. Suraya is still trying to get use to the Pacific time...being 3 hours later than Eastern time. Her bedtime is 3 hours earlier and she wakes up 3 hours earlier too.

The flight to Florida was a breeze. It was night time and both flights were not fully booked. Staff gave an an extra seat so that I could put Suraya in the seat next to me. It helped me a lot of not having to hold her all the time. We were not so lucky on the way back to SF. Since it was a Sunday, no extra seats available and I had to hold Suraya most of the way...that explains why I was so mangled. Every limb of my body ached. Took me 2 days and a 600mg Ibuprofen to take the pain away.

But we experienced watching a very scarey situation on our way out of Florida en route Charlotte, North Carolina. We were boarding the plane and there is a mother with a baby (about 1 year old) in hand. The baby was crying non stop for 15 minutes as soon as he boarded. Then all of a sudden we heard 'Hey, you need to BE QUIET YOU HEAR ME???'...I thought that was the father yelling at the baby but it was another passenger yelling at the baby! The mother in defense, yelled back and said not to yell at her baby. Then the ignorant passenger said 'Well, your baby is disturbing my peace and I am sure others feel that way too!'. But I also heard one passenger said 'No we don't' and I said 'Go get a first class ticket next time buddy!'. Geez...I think I would have reacted worse than the mother if Suraya gets yelled at. How ignorant some adults can be. It was not as if the parent was not trying to quiet the baby.

Well anyway, thats how travelling with an infant was for me. Suraya will be a world class traveller by end of this year. So many relatives to visit for a little baby lke her. For me, I am sooooo done travelling either by car, plane or train. My mother in law in Reno can wait until I am up to travelling again cos this mama and her baby is done for now! This goes to the husband too...ya hear me husband?

We're home and I am so mangled from the trip. Like I said, the mother is always the one who suffers after vacations.

Click here to take a look at all the photos while I take my time to recover...

If I did not have time to update this page before our trip to Florida, I am leaving these smiley pictures for you.





See you soon...

How to travel with a baby

Our Florida trip will be on Tuesday, January 16th...

Now now, I have not done this for the longest time....travelling with a baby. Yeah sure, my 2 older kids are excellent travellers since they were babies. We travelled by bus to Malaysia all the time and my parents used to haul my son by plane to Indonesia and the kids were never missing (like Home Alone) neither were they fussy travellers. Their 1st trip to the US several years back were also pleasant for them as they knew what to bring with them in their packpacks to keep them entertained for 21 hours in flight.

Infant? Baby? You can't entertain them but pray hard that they will not scream on top of their lungs during take off and landing in 2 separate planes on the way to Florida and back.

Like what the old people say 'Orang kecik, barang segerobok' (means : small baby but so much stuff). The smaller the baby is, the more troublesome it is to travel. Seems like the husband is oblivious to this...but he will know pretty soon!

Stroller : Suraya's stroller is the car seat/stroller seat and it combines with the car seat frame to turn it into a stroller. Since Suraya will be flying on our lap (or should I say MY lap?) and using the Baby Bjorn barrier...so lugging the car seat with us into the plane would be too much of a hassle. Our only option is to check the seat and the stroller frame into cargo. As we all know, cargo men DO NOT give a rat's ass if the stroller is new or not yeah? so we shall anticipate some broken parts and scratches when it reaches Florida.

Milk : No problem, just take ME and the breast pump along, this one's settled.

Clothes and diapers : Again, I shall bring half of her wardrobe with us for constant changing. Don't forget the lingerie net, don't want to clog the in laws' washer with her mittens and tiny socks (we learned it the hard way...a mitten got caught in our washer...$100 to take it out!). We shall bring about 20 diapers with us for the plane trip and the rest we could get at Target...if you're still in America, Target is always just around the corner.

Anything else? : Don't forget her gripe water! This will be the life saver for ibu and paps and the in laws! The in laws will borrow a crib for a few days for Suraya. To me, she could always sleep with ibu if there's no crib. Oh and don't forget my beloved Kakak Mas. Mas is so independant, she knows how to pack and what to bring so I never worry about her. She will also get her own room when she gets to the grannies house. We just owe her a good time.

Yes I am nervous flying with an infant...so leceh! But I have to remind myself...it will be as leceh as I want it to be yes???